Indiana Jones and the Fire of Prometheus

Hi there,

don't know if that has been mentioned by someone else here, but this is my idea for Indy IV:

INDIANA JONES AND THE FIRE OF PROMETHEUS:

After the "generic" action prologue, Indy is back at the college. There he is approached by 2 guys in black suits (CIA), who tell him about his old friend, who is working for the soviets in a dig somewhere (where exactly is not relevant, but it should not be in the USSR). They tell Indy his friend is forced to work for the soviets, but as he is working outside the USSR now, it's the chance to "extract" and rescue him. And Indy is just the right man to infiltrate the dig site and get the job done. So he decides to grab his whip just one more time ... (Okay, that sounds a bit forced. We need to find a reason why Indy is willing to rescue his friend -- maybe that can be told in flashbacks: In WW2 Indy was in a prison somewhere, and then his friend came and helped him out, so now Indy feels to pay that back and rescue his friend now).

He arrives at the dig site and finds some way to get in. Then he meets his friend and prepares the escape (maybe with explosions somewhere in the dig site). But: His friend doesn't want to leave! He just found some clues about the Fire of Prometheus. Soviet leaders are hunting for it, because they believe it is associated to nuclear bombs! The soviets just detonated their first bomb, but the want the ultimate nuclear device to either "rule the world" or at least own the "ultimate deterrence device".

At the site Indy's friend discovered writings that describe the power of Prometheus' fire and the legend how Prometheus was banned to a cave in the Caucasus.

"Aha, that's why the CIA wants him!!" Indy thinks. And so they have to get behind the Iron Curtain to find the Fire first ... a race against time begins.

Most probably the cave houses a huge amount of Plutonium. Because thousands of years ago all people who went into the cave returned with burnings all over their body and died shortly later the cave was associated to the Fire of Prometheus, to keep the people from going into the cave.

The showdown surely includes The Villain [tm] running the the final Plutonium Chamber in greed and going up in flames. At last the whole cave is blocked after a huge explosion.

Any further ideas?

Andre

Errrr... George?

Would Sallah Work?

Andre,

Would Sallah work for your friend?

For your backstory, you could have IJ and Sallah stuck in a German POW camp in Northern Africa during WWII. Together they plan an escape, during which, at the critical moment Sallah (in a play on that great line in RotLA) insists "You go first Indy" -- knowing full well as he says it that by letting IJ go first will mean that IJ will escape but that Sallah will remain a prisioner.

Mr. Fisk,

I don't know about you but for me one of the highlights of Bonus Material DVD was whenever Davies was on the screen. This guy deserves a big role. On further reflection, if Andre were to go with Sallah, there really would be no need for the backstory -- because IJ would go and get 'em no matter what. I guess the POW camp could work as a short opening sequence at the time they make their break . . . .


As for the larger story,
(1) What would be the supernatural element? I confess that I don't know what the Fire of Prometheus is.
(2) I'd like to see some of the villians and other characters sketched out.

Yes, there would need to be a element--not just a myth that turns out to be plutonium or whatever. In each film the artifact and its surrounding power is real. Other than that, you've got a pretty good idea there. Nice work--you too, Sean (Joe).

Hi again,

that story would work much better with the Nazis ... the Nazis getting the A-Bomb would surely make Indy kind of angry!

Here's a link that explains the Myth:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Column/1122/PROMETHS.htm

Unfortunately it says Prometheus was freed, so maybe it doesn't work perfectly.

Otherwise the Sallah-idea is great! But why should he be forced by the Soviets to work for them? He is not an archaeoligist per se. Any ideas?

As villains we could have soviet soldiers as Nazi-equivalents. The bad guy should be a KGB-man in charge of the operation of finding the Fire.

There could also be an ancient Prometheus-brotherhood that wants to keep mankind from getting the fire again. As in the Myth, they see it as a failure of giving mankind the Fire (=Bomb). They could either be the stereotype brotherhood, or a more Illuminati style, with politicians, etc. that want to ban nuclear weapons.
At first they could be villains, but when they realise that Indy is on their side, they could be allies (as some of the girls in Bond movies).

The supernatural? Hmm, good question....

Let's drop that idea in favour of:

INDIANA JONES
AND THE RETURN
OF THE PHOENIX

I assume the Commies won't be the enemies in Indy IV, although it is set in the 50's. It wouldn't be politically correct, Lucas wants to sell his movies also in Russia.

So what would be more logical than to revive the Nazis? Okay, WW2 is lost, but somebody has a bone or whatever of Adolph Hitler ... and he has lots of gold and friends. And he found out about the Phoenix legend:

Every 500 (does anybody know how many years? I just guessed) Phoenix flew to a point somewhere in the egyptian desert. There he was consumed by flames only to rise renewed from its ashes.

The Nazi thinks: Well, if that works with a bird .... why shouldn't it work with a bone?

So he spent some years searching and now is is close to finding the place where the fire will burn ... the time will come soon.

Of course, Indy is out there to do everything he can to prevent that. Will Hitler be reborn? What is the Order of Phoenix?

Follow Indy from Argentine (Nazi HQ) to the buried Temples underneath the Egyptian Desert (with Sallah, of course!) to witness
THE RETURN OF THE PHOENIX
in your cinema ...... SOON!

What do you think about that? Any questions, comments? And I have more ideas...

Andre

Back to FIRE OF PROMETHEUS:

If you want it *really* supernatural:
Prometheus is an Atlantean priest, who was a magician/engineer and wanted to teach the Greek about the use of Orichalcum (=Plutonium) and thus "giving fire to mankind". He was punished by the Atlantean kings [followers of the "atlantean knowledge non-proliferation policy" ;-)) ] and banned in the Caucasus Mountains ... taking his knowledge with him.

He is imprisoned in a cave and kept alive by his knowledge (an atlantean device).

This would make for a nice showdown, as the priest must not leave the cave, or .... you know!

Andre

Interesting idea

And interesting artifact

It's a pretty cool plotline - maybe you should write up some fan fiction IndyBeck!